Affine Pieri rule for periodic Macdonald spherical functions and fusion rings

Abstract

Let gˆ be an untwisted affine Lie algebra or the twisted counterpart thereof (which excludes the affine Lie algebras of type BCˆn=A2n(2)). We present an affine Pieri rule for a basis of periodic Macdonald spherical functions associated with gˆ. In type Aˆn−1=An−1(1) the formula in question reproduces an affine Pieri rule for cylindric Hall-Littlewood polynomials due to Korff, which at t=0 specializes in turn to a well-known Pieri formula in the fusion ring of genus zero slˆ(n)c-Wess-Zumino-Witten conformal field theories.